We asked Ing. Petr Kočiš, head of dairy production in Sabinov.
• You deal with milk processing. Is milk healthy?
Yes, I would say milk is almost an ideal food. The only thing it lacks to be ideal is fiber. From a dietary perspective, it is the most complete food containing all the necessary nutrients for our body and these are easily digestible and usable proteins, sugars – in this case lactose, which is quickly absorbed and means a quick energy supply for the human body.
We must not forget that milk is a very important source of minerals, especially calcium. Then there are fats; raw milk contains about 3.8% fat. The milk we consume most often contains only 1.5% fat, which is so-called semi-skimmed milk, but this is completely sufficient for adults. For children, full-fat milk with 3.6 – 4% fat is better.
However, we do not produce plain full-fat milk but dairy products with higher fat content. Our plain yogurt is 9%, flavored 7%, curd cheese 6%. Some complain that these are very "fatty" products, but compare milk with meat products, which can have fat content up to 80%. "Fattier" yogurt is tastier; fat is generally known as a carrier of flavor.
• But there are various contradictory information about the health aspect of milk…
Yes, various half-truths are spread. This is because not all consumers are experts on milk, and their ignorance is exploited.
• The problem is not that everyone is right, but that everyone talks about different milk? Because those who say milk is healthy mean quality milk, and those who say milk is bad mean poor, low-quality milk.
Of course, milk can be of poor quality regarding the raw material. But there are control mechanisms to prevent such poor-quality milk from entering further processing in dairies. Quality control of milk is done at the entrance control, which is present in every dairy in Slovakia.
Of course, it is easier with one or two animals. But when you have 100, 200, or 1000 animals, for example goats, it is hardly possible to check 100%. Therefore, pasteurization serves to eliminate such risk. Pasteurization can be called a "necessary evil" important for food safety, especially dairy products. Pasteurization is not an invention of the last ten years; it was invented by Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) in the 19th century. He started with pasteurization of wine so it could be exported from France to America. At that time, wine often spoiled on the way. Although wine has the advantage of containing alcohol, which acts as a preservative, milk does not have this advantage. It contains lactose, milk sugar, which is easily broken down and is food for microorganisms present in milk and everywhere around, and besides beneficial, good microorganisms, undesirable ones can multiply in milk, and pasteurization serves to destroy undesirable (pathogenic) bacteria. The optimal temperature of so-called "gentle" pasteurization is 72 degrees and the exposure time to milk is 15 seconds. The main advantage of "gentle" pasteurization is that vitamins and health-beneficial substances are not destroyed in milk.
